Gaining+attention

The 3 parts the instructor should use to gain the learner’s attention (Gagne, 1985) are:

• Appealing to the interest of the learner • Identifying instructional relevance • Stimulating prior knowledge

In many ways, Gain Attention activities serve as your sales pitch and a way to engage your learners and gain buy-in for the topic at hand.

They are motivated by their desire to solve a problem in their lives.

Carefully crafted Gain Attention activities allow you to answer these participant concerns because they demonstrate that you get it and the scratch the itch they came with.

Attention Gainers also serve the instructor by helping to prepare participants emotionally for where you want to take them.

Attention Gaining activities should always be related to the topic Get their attention captive. Get in their heads. . . because that’s where instruction has to do its thing.

Possible topic related attention gainers include:

1.) sharing a surprising statistic or telling a hair-raising story 2.) asking a provocative question, 3.) reading an engaging newspaper story, 4.) showing a film clip, 5.) building a metaphor, 6.) polling the group on some challenging aspect around the topic. 7.)Make a prediction. 8.)Demonstrate something or pose a problem or dilemma. 9.)Present a case study. 10.) USe arresting images or graphics. 11.) Use a provocative quotation.